This Is England

Every purchase you make through these Amazon links supports DVD Verdict's reviewing efforts. Thank you!

All Rise...

Judge Adam Arseneau has a passion for red suspenders.

The Charge

Run with the crowd. Stand alone. You decide.

Opening Statement

An emotional and heartfelt introspective tale set to a ferocious political
backdrop, This Is England is surprisingly profound, almost tender in its
nostalgic coming-of-age reminiscence.

Facts of the Case

Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is a young boy growing up in the Midlands in the
early eighties. His father was killed during the Falklands War, leaving him
without a father figure in his life and some deep-seeded emotional issues. He
gets picked on relentlessly at school for his unfashionable clothes and spends
most of his time alone, wandering the landscape. One day he runs into a group of
young skinheads hanging out under a bridge, who take pity on this sad young boy
and take him under their wing. The leader, Woody, takes a particular shine to
Shaun, and soon they deck him out in the appropriate dress, shave his head, and
treat him kindly, giving him the friends and support group he so badly
needed.

Suddenly, the harmony of the group is disrupted by the sudden return of
Combo (Stephen Graham, Snatch), who
spent a few years in jail taking the rap for Woody. He quickly reasserts his
leadership over the group, and armed with new political and racial ideologies,
converts the group of skinheads into followers of the National Front movement.
Woody and his friends immediately depart the group, but young Shaun finds a
strong father figure in Combo, and soon finds himself awash in hatred and
anger.

The Evidence

A personal dabble into allegorical autobiography by writer/director Shane
Meadows (Once Upon A Time in the
Midlands), This Is England plays like a skinhead version of Stand by Me, a nostalgic and soul-searching
look at growing up disaffected in the Midlands of England. Like all good teenage
suburban sprawl films, the film focuses on the unnaturally sterile and lifeless
existence of desolate dislocation, in this case Northern England. The concept of
the gang is less a criminal organization and more a symbiotic family unit for
the disaffected and bored youths who are unable (or unwilling) to form such
bonds with their own family. For Shaun, running with the skinheads hold no
taboo, no controversy—they are merely friendly faces in a storm of
unhappiness, boredom, and bullying. As family units go, the group is
surprisingly tender and nurturing, if a bit on the anarchistic side, until the
return of Combo, who rapidly reasserts his leadership over the group. Like a
snake-oil salesman of hatred and angst, Combo rapidly co-opting the group into
his new white nationalism ideology he picked up in prison. Slowly, horrifyingly,
the skinhead group schisms into those willing to follow Combo, and those who
cannot stand up to him but refuse to adhere to his ideas. Young Shaun, so eager
to please this new, strong male father figure, ends up tagging along to National
Front rallies and all manner of terribleness.

As a period piece from the early Eighties in England, the film is
excruciatingly detailed in crafting the illusion of the era—clothing,
cars, haircuts, locations all perfectly selected. Much of the film is rooted
deep in the politics of its era, laden with scathing criticisms of Thatcher-era
politics, immigration, the Falklands War, and, of course, the National Front
movement itself, a nasty bit of hatred that spread embarrassingly far throughout
the country at the time. A knee-jerk response to the perceived threat of
immigration in England, the movement set itself out on racial lines, and for
some reason found resonance with some of the skinhead movement. Prior to this,
the skinhead movement was a working-class response to the mod and punk scenes,
with little in the way of a political agenda. Equating racism with skinheads
today is simple, but This Is England does a good job illustrating how the
roots of the movement were decisively non-violent, drawing its inspirations from
the mod scene, new wave, and the popularity of Jamaican reggae music in the
United Kingdom. Such violence and hatred were fundamentally at-odds with the
carefree, racially divergent freedom of the subculture, but alas, those rotten
apples have a way of spoiling things for all.

With Combo's return, the group begins to fracture along political lines
Woody and his group never realized existed. The old leader galvanizes the
troops, so to speak, armed with knowledge learned from prison about Thatcher,
the Falklands War, and the National Front movement, and Shaun is swept up in the
descent. Things tumble rapidly downhill from there, and the transition from the
sweet, heartfelt happy-go-lucky first act to the grim second is troubling. The
final sequence is like watching a set of fine china perched precariously on a
rickety shelf, tumbling to the ground in agonizing slow motion—you can see
it coming from a hundred miles away but are helpless to look away, let alone
stop it.

In his debut acting performance, young Thomas Turgoose kicks out a stunning
performance, full of humor, charm, and heart. At times, he puts on an air of
confidence and anger, while others you can see him for the small, lonely boy he
is. If he makes a career out of the acting, he'll be somebody to watch. Stephen
Graham is painful to watch as Combo, not from a poor performance, but because of
how effectively upsetting and uncomfortable a performance he turns out as the
skinhead. You can see something dancing in his eyes the entire way through that
seems just a bit too intense. A marvelously effective, if intimidating
performance.

A humbling film, This Is England alternates between the
gut-wrenchingly tragic decline into violence married with affirming nuances of
life, beauty, and the human spirit. Through Shaun, we are told a tale of
loneliness and apathy, but also one of friendship, comradeship, and youthful
indiscretions. His descent into hatred and racism mirrors the decline of England
during a bleak period of lower-class frustration and stagnation, faced with a
controversial government, a poorly-received war, and high unemployment rates,
none of which matter to young Shaun. He simply falls into the same trap, buys
into the same malarkey that so many others buy into. After the camera stops
rolling, it feels so poignant, so profound a tale, balanced between humor and
heartbreak. On all three fronts—writing, directing, and acting—this
film is a triumph.

The image is clean and free from print damage, with heavy color saturation
and a haze-like softness at times. Indoor sequences get pretty messy, with
evident graininess and washed-out black levels, but the visual style fits the
film well. The cinematography is stunning, capturing some impressive visuals
from the lonely English countryside and urban sprawls of the Midlands. The Dolby
5.1 track is clean and crisp, but a bit thin on bass response. The film is
primarily dialogue-driven, with little in the way of effects, but the rear
channels capture the soundtrack well. With music and style being integral to the
skinhead subculture, This Is England roots many of its key sequences
around a fantastic soundtrack, including songs by Toots & The Maytals, The
Upsetters, The Specials, Strawberry Switchblade, and Dexys Midnight Runners,
along with a beautifully atmospheric score by Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi.
English subtitles are included, which is a blessing—those thick rural
accents can be tricky sometimes.

In terms of extras, the main feature is a commentary track featuring
writer/director Shane Meadows, producer Mark Herbert, and young actor Thomas
Turgoose (who went through puberty like a train wreck between the film and the
recording of the commentary track, his voice dropping two octaves). The track is
fantastic, a total laugh, with all laughing and singing along with the
soundtrack as they delve into filming details. A short seven-minute "making
of" featurette is also included, as well as a four-minute video interview
with Meadows and ten minutes of deleted scenes (including an alternate ending)
with a "play all" feature. For the nerds, two comprehensive and
informative on-screen essays, "Skinhead Culture: Cropped, Braced &
Booted" and "The Falklands: A Pathetic War" by Darrell Buxton are
included to fill in some of the social and political backdrop to the film, both
well-written and easily accessible. Toss in a theatrical trailer to round things
off.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Rooting a film in such personal introspection inadvertently makes it a wee
bit pretentious. It just does. There's nothing wrong with doing it—heck,
directors do it all the time. However, it divides audiences like the parting of
the Red Sea. On the one hand, some immediately find aspects that harmoniously
resonate within their own experiences, forming connections and strong
attachments to such films, while others just plain take offense at the
self-indulgence.

Me, I usually go with the former. This Is England reeks of
self-indulgence, but it smells awfully good to this reviewer; a perfect test
subject who jotted down comparative notes of growing up annoyed, disaffected,
and listening to loud music in a suburban pit of boredom. Other people will no
doubt have radically different experiences, and, hey, that's cool.

Closing Statement

Equal parts heartbreak and exuberant joy, This Is England is one of
the best films of 2006 that nobody in North America got to see. Shane Meadows is
rapidly proving himself to be one of the most talented and heartfelt British
directors of his generation, and with good reason. In telling the story of one
person's childhood, This Is England hits the nail right on the head. Like
a time capsule taken from a generation past of loud music, controversial wars,
and conservative politics, this is England. Not like today, right?